The Cargo ship Heidrun B has recently launched from the Samsung shipyard in Korea, which has been under construction, states TUjobs.com. The cargo ship is deigned to stay put for 30 years in the Heidrun oil field in the Norwegian Sea, which is considered one of the world’s worst weather areas.

According to Tor Erik Hilden, Project Manager for Statoil, Heidrun B is essentially built as a tanker, but is significantly enhanced due to strength and fatigue limits. Apparently, Korea also provided harsh weather, and that the shipyard’s mooring lines are so large and heavy that they are best handled by machinery.

For nearly 20 years, the Heidrun field in the Norwegian Sea has been using a system with two submersible buoys, where shuttle tankers loaded oil from the field. The technical life age for Heidrun is 50 years, meaning it will be in operation until 2045.

This system is now ready to be replaced due to lower oil production, and the age of the shuttle tankers, says task manager Tore Kulset in a Statoil review. This is the reason why Heidrun B has been under construction at the Samsung shipyard in Korea.

The result is a so-called FSU, a floating storage unit, with a storage capacity of 850.000 barrels of oil. The FSU is 260 meters long and 46 meters wide.

Statoil mentions that this was the second Statoil project that launched from the same shipyard in less than a week, with the Valemon project launched to sea. Kulset explains that the project has until April 2015 to find a new solution, and a tight schedule is necessary make the deadline. In addition to the new cargo vessel, one of the old buoys will be replaced during the summer.

“We are very pleased to have reached this milestone on schedule, and with the highly skilled project team in place, I have faith that the storage vessel will be delivered on time,” explains Kulset.

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